


Heaven Tied a Knot

by TigerStripedSniper (seazu)



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: M/M, Teenlock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-27
Updated: 2014-02-27
Packaged: 2018-01-14 00:26:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1245853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seazu/pseuds/TigerStripedSniper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hanging upside down from a branch like the monkey he was acting, the boy smiled and said, “you’re funny.”</p><p>And that was all it took.</p><p>Because the brown-eyed little doe had been called many things, but ‘funny’ wasn’t one of them. Dropping out of the tree, he asked, “what’s your name?”</p><p>“I’m Jim Moriarty,” he replied with such hesitance, as if he was waiting for the world to crash down on him.</p><p>But the other just smiled further, “I’m Sebastian.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heaven Tied a Knot

Have you ever heard of the red string of destiny? Maybe you have, actually you probably have, just maybe not by that name. Basically it’s an ancient belief that two people are tied to each other by a red string – sometimes around their ankles, sometimes around their pinkies – folklore says that these people are destined to meet, and help each other through a certain point in their lives, or that they are destined to be lovers. The string can tangle, but it will never break.

These two people, they’re like soulmates. And the string is fate.

He didn’t know any of this, not when they first met. He was too young. They both were.

The blue-eyed boy was hanging out of a tree, not so far away that his mother couldn’t see, but definitely out of ear-shot. He was being observed by a boy like he was the strangest of creatures; but he didn’t even notice until the watcher spoke up, and expertly recited the distance with which he would have to fall in order to do any serious damage to himself, and what kind of traumas could occur, exactly.

Hanging upside down from a branch like the monkey he was acting, the boy smiled and said, “you’re funny.”

And that was all it took.

Because the brown-eyed little doe had been called many things, but ‘funny’ wasn’t one of them. Dropping out of the tree, he asked, “what’s your name?”

“I’m Jim Moriarty,” he replied with such hesitance, as if he was waiting for the world to crash down on him.

But the other just smiled further, “I’m Sebastian.”

Fast-forward ten years and Jim slips into Sebastian’s bed like it’s no big deal; because it isn’t. The rules of ‘normality’ and social formalities don’t apply here because there’s nothing normal about them. They met as kids, and though they lived so far apart, they managed to keep in touch. At such a young age, they still found each other when Sebastian went back to Dublin during school holidays with his mother. And when the Moran family moved down south, they found each other again. They finished primary school together – Sebastian outcast because he was ‘the new kid’ and Jim because he was an antisocial little know-it-all.

But it worked for them.

They boarded at Blackrock together, and Jim would sneak down dark corridors in the dead of night just to curl into bed with his best friend, because he wouldn’t be able to sleep any other way. It was normal for them. It was fine that they hugged and that Jim fixed Sebastian’s hair and that they texted all day when they were apart. They had integrated so smoothly into the other’s lives that it was only weird for them to be separated.

Things only started to seem strange to them when Sebastian realised that he found it awkward to have a girlfriend for any length of time. He found that the idea of potentially replacing Jim made him feel uncomfortable. When he dared to wonder why that was, he only found it further curious that he thought a girlfriend would replace his best friend, as if he couldn’t have both. He didn’t voice his ponderings, especially when he finally realised that he didn’t treat any of his friends like he did little Jimmy, and that couldn’t have just been because of how long they had been Jimmy-and-Bash; not just because they had had that  _time_ to grow close.

So instead he had the odd little flings and just pushed himself further into sports and when he got a little bit more serious about his future, allowed Jim to help him more with the academics.

They played a part in each other’s lives that was really quite unique to their particular friendship, compared to the more common. Jim would coerce Sebastian into reading, into doing his homework; he would spill little facts and make a point of dropping foreign words and phrases into conversations in the hopes that it would help Sebastian along in school. Sebastian’s charm and success in sports had led him to be quite popular in secondary school, and that allowed him to keep an eye out for Jim, defending him where he could, and taking on anyone who messed with the slip of a boy. They didn’t realise it, but Sebastian looked after Jim’s present, and Jim looked after Sebastian’s future.

It had always been on the cards; or more accurately, Sebastian’s father had stolen the rest of his son’s hand and left him with one path to choose – an army career like his old man, and his grandfather, and a whole damn line of men in the Moran family. Sebastian had grown up knowing this was his future, and hadn’t considered any other option. Only when Jim told him he had a choice did he start taking his schoolwork seriously. The prospect of a whole other life excited him as if he had never noticed how vast the world really was.

Maybe it was selfish on Jim’s part. The idea of losing his only real friend to at the very least a three-year stint in service was a painful idea. Losing him for good was something he refused to acknowledge. What he  _could_ do for now though, was enjoy Sebastian’s sudden interest in English and Maths, instead of being the eternal meat-brain he had been sizing up to be. There was never a chance that he would overtake Jimmy in smarts, but it would be nice, he thought, to have an intelligent conversation every once in a while. Though he did enjoy being able to lecture the boy.

But that could have had more to do with how pleasant his voice sounded to one’s own dainty ear.

Fast-forward again to the end of Secondary school, and Sebastian decided that the Army was what he wanted, in the end. But he thanked that brown-eyed boy for being the first person to give him a choice in the matter.

It was less to do with being unable to stand up to his father, and more that he wanted the chance to be a man. He wanted to learn and be useful and important. He wanted structure and success. He could recite any manner of lines from the adverts and the brochures, and Jim could call him a coward or brainwashed – but it was what he wanted. The compromise, for all involved, was that he would finish his undergrad degree before he entered the service.

In the end, they both got into Oxford.

Sebastian had a suspicion that Jimmy could have gotten in anywhere, studied anywhere, but he wanted to be with his friend. He didn’t bring it up, didn’t want to startle the deer and have him flee. Jim had his sights on staying at University as long as they’d have him. But even if Sebastian was there for three years, and spent six to eight in the Army, Jim would still be finished before he came home for good.

That was Jim.

Wherever he was.

I know it sounds soppy, but when you have one thing in your life that’s constant, surely that’s more home than any building. You know I’m right.

Press the skip button, watch life dance by, and they’re in Uni. Got a little place near the campus, and they’re playing house. Jimmy’s still immeasurably smarter than Bash, but he doesn’t have to help him anymore – doesn’t want to really, because he knows that he’s capable. But he still can’t help himself from finishing those crosswords the blonde leaves lying around the flat. Angry scribbles hiding misused letters and impatient doodles bordering the grid. He would always wonder why he chose to do them in pen when he always made so many mistakes.

He keeps handfuls of dried berries in his pocket. Has done since he realised the blue-eyed boy had a taste for him. He’s been conditioning him for a long time without the other realising. But that’s for him to do, not superior officers, or corporals, or colonels, or lieutenants.

Little over a year in and Jim’s asking Sebastian about giving a girl “signals”, and Sebastian’s confused explanation isn’t enough so he demands a demonstration. For lack of a broom in a dress, Bash makes Jim stand up. He’s telling Jimmy about “the moment”. He tells him it can creep up on you, with someone you wouldn’t even expect it to, and he makes eye-contact with Jimmy when they’re just a person apart. He says it could be in the middle of the most innocent conversation, and you might just fall silent – though that’s unlikely in your case. He says, but if you’re not sure if she’s feeling it too, close the gap a little bit. And he closes the gap a little bit. Tilt your head slightly, and lean towards her, let your eyes break away for just long enough to trace her lips. And he tilts his head slightly, and he leans towards Jim and he glances at his lips, and then back into those big brown eyes.

Sebastian says, don’t lean in the whole way, don’t just kiss her. She has to want it too, she has to close the rest of the gap, she has to be part of it.

But when she does, if she does, you can move your arms around her, bring her closer, make it more than just a little peck on the lips, show her that you want her. And he moves Jim’s hands to rest on his arm, and at his waist. And he slips his arm around Jim’s waist too, and lets the other cup the back of his neck. And he doesn’t quite know what he’s doing when he uses that hand to encourage Jim to close the gap. And suddenly he’s teaching Jim how to kiss, without words.

They break apart, but surprisingly only after the kiss has ended in its natural rhythm. And Sebastian stares, and Jim – oh Jim – he just nods and thanks Sebastian and leaves the room.

And Sebastian is left there, alone. He’s clawing at his insides and wondering what possessed him to do that, because he couldn’t see the string. He’s stepping backwards into a chair and clutching at his head, unable to blink because he doesn’t understand. Unbearably glad that Jim is apparently so oblivious to all things sexual, and so oblivious to where any lines are drawn in their friendship. Sebastian had thought he knew where that line was drawn though, and now he’s doubting everything he ever knew, right to his very core.

He’s wondering if this was just another personal test to see how much of him is really him, and how much is influenced by his father. He can’t tell right now, because all he feels is sick.

All he feels is a strange urge to teach Jim more. 


End file.
